Who will choose the best Polish films and series?

We are pleased to introduce the jury of this year's Polish and Series Competitions - three outstanding professionals whose experience spans international film productions, award-winning animated works, and many years of involvement in film education and festival programming.

Over the coming days, they will be watching, analyzing, and discussing the competing films to select the productions that impress and inspire the most.

Jelena Dragutinović is a self-employed cultural worker and film educator. She graduated in philosophy, focusing on the psychoanalysis of fairy tales, where she explored how children and adolescents read at different developmental stages and how fairy tales engage with their unconscious.  Since 2014, she has been collaborating with the Slon/ Elephant association for film education, where she conducts workshops on optical toys and animation, as well as leading educational discussions accompanying film screenings. Within the Slon/Elephant Association, she works as a workshop mentor and has also served as the programme coordinator since 2019. Since 2017, she has been the coordinator of the children’s jury at the International film festival  Animateka . Since 2020, she has been the selector of the Slon/Elephant children’s competition programme and the coordinator of its school programme. Since 2023, she has been a selector of the children’s and youth competition programme at the ZOOM Festival, as well as a selector of the children’s programme at the StopTrik Festival.

Daniele Zannone is a visual effects artist and former character animator with over 15 years of experience in the film industry. He grew up in northern Italy and started playing with 3D animation during his teenage years. He soon discovered he wanted to make a career out of it, so right after high school, he joined the online character animation school Animation Mentor. After a decade-long career as a character animator, he transitioned into visual effects six years ago. Throughout this journey, he has worked for studios all over the world, such as Aardman, Double Negative, Sony Imageworks, MPC, Illumination and Mikros, on movies such as Arthur Christmas, Hotel Transylvania, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Minions, Despicable Me 3, Cherry, Dog Man, Troll 2, and more. He currently resides in Paris with his girlfriend and their two kids and works at One of Us on an undisclosed production. 

Karolina Specht – a graduate of the Film School in Łódź, majoring in Animated Film and Special Effects. She is the author of animated shorts that have received numerous awards at international and national film festivals. Her filmography includes productions such as “Squaring the Circle,” “Beside Oneself,” “Don’t Lose Your Head,” and “An Incredibly Elastic Man.” In addition, she is a director actively working in commercial animation, combining artistic qualities with functionality. She is the creator of short-form works such as the opening sequence for the ANIMATOR Festival (2019), the opening sequence for the Etiuda&Anima Festival (2022), as well as many projects produced at Warsaw-based BluBluStudios, with which she has been associated for years as an animation director and lead animator. As part of this collaboration, she created, among others, animations for the Oscar-nominated feature documentary “Porcelain War” (2024), as well as promotional films for clients such as WWF, MLB, the Baltimore Ravens, and Durex.